Wings Fall in Extras Wednesday
BUFFALO, N.Y. - There's no rushing Thruway Cup baseball. Especially in 2016. Rochester and Buffalo went to extra frames at Coca-Cola Field for the second consecutive day Wednesday with the Bisons coming out on top 2-1 thanks to Domonic Brown's RBI single in the 10th inning.
Jason Wheeler was transferred from Double-A Chattanooga prior to the game and made his first start of the season for the Red Wings (8-11) after three of Rochester's five starters were needed in Minnesota.
The burly 6'6" lefty started 15 games for the Wings last season and struggled as he went 1-7 with a 6.58 ERA. He surrendered three Bisons (9-11) base hits in the bottom of the first and it appeared as 2015 struggles would continue.
Wheeler settled down and went on to retire 10 of the next 11 batters he faced including quick 1-2-3 frames in the second and fourth innings.
Roberto Hernandez was signed by Toronto and assigned to Buffalo prior to the game started for Buffalo. The man formerly known as Fausto Carmona when he pitched for the Cleveland Indians appeared in 20 games last season for the Houston Astros, made his return to Buffalo. Hernandez pitched for the Bisons from 2004-06 and made his Triple-A debut against the Wings at Frontier Field back in 2004.
Hernandez was equally impressive for Buffalo, tossing four scoreless innings while giving up just three hits with a walk and a strikeout.
Arnold Leon replaced Hernandez in the top of the fifth and the Wings capitalized. Heiker Meneses slapped a double into the gap in left-center and Byron Buxton moved him over to third with an infield single. James Beresford brought Meneses in with an opposite field hit to put Rochester on the board and give them the 1-0 lead.
Casey Kotchman led off the bottom of the fifth with a single and would advance to second but nothing came of the lead off hit as Wheeler forced a pair of popups to end the frame.
Wheeler retired 11 of the next 13 before Kotchman stepped to the dish in the bottom of the seventh. Kotchman tied the game with one swing as he belted a solo homer to right to make it 1-1
Before the Kotchman homer, Wheeler had retired 11-of-13 batters with the lone base hit being Kotchman's leadoff single in the fifth inning.
Leon went on to retire 10 straight after the Beresford RBI single and sat down six of them via the strikeout sending it to the ninth still tied 1-1.
Brandon Kintzler (3-1) came on in the bottom of the ninth with the winning run standing just 90 feet from home but forced a 5-3 putout to send the game to extras.
Beresford singled with two outs in the 10th but the Wings left him on first. David Adams singled to lead off Buffalo 10th inning and would be replaced by pinch-runner Jon Berti at first. Berti stole second and advanced to third and then would be driven home on a line drive to left-center Brown to end the game.
Rochester had their opportunities to plate runs but the struggles of batting with runners in scoring position continued. The Wings stranded nine runners on base and left runners on the corners in the second inning and left the bases loaded in the fifth.
Buxton and Beresford had multiple hits for the Wings. Buxton went 2-for-5 while Beresford had a multi-hit game for the third consecutive game, going 3-for-5 with the lone RBI.
Dustin Antolin (1-0) earned his first win of the season for his work in the ninth and 10t innings for the Bisons.
Wheeler walked away with the no-decision after putting together a quality start, going seven innings while allowing just one run on six hits with a walk and three strikeouts.
WINGIN' IT NOTES
- Byron Buxton has now recorded a hit in all 15 games he has played for the Red Wings dating back to the 2015 season.
- It's the first time the Red Wings have played in back-to-back extra inning games since April 23-24, 2013 when they lost an 8-7 decision to Syracuse in 13 innings then turned around the next day and won
- Jimmy is heating up. James Beresford is batting .478 (11-for-23) in his last five games with seven RBIs and three runs scored.
The Messenger Post Media Pics of the Day: check out photo galleries from the first two homestands.
Next up: LHP Logan Darnell starts the rubber match in Buffalo on Thursday at 1:05 p.m.
Next Home Game: Friday, April 29 (doubleheader) vs. Scranton/Wilkes-Barre (Yankees) at Frontier Field, 5:05 p.m.
Tickets: Order tickets online, anytime at RedWingsBaseball.com/Tickets or call 423-WING (9464) to charge by phone, Mon-Fri. 9 am-5 pm and weekend game days starting at 10 a.m.
Promotions: Check out complete, updated home game promotion details at RedWingsBaseball.com/Fun
Follow the Wings on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat @RocRedWings
Download the Inside the Park app -
the most interactive way to enjoy Wings home games